Goodyear Fast Facts
NASCAR Cup Series – All-Star Race
North Wilkesboro Speedway (0.625-mile oval) – North Wilkesboro, N.C.
Fast Facts for May 17-19, 2024
Tire: Goodyear Eagle 18-inch Speedway Radials
Set limits:
All-Star teams — 3 sets of Primes & 2 sets of Options for practice/qualifying/heats;
Open teams — 3 sets of Primes & 2 sets of Options for practice/qualifying/Open;
All-Star race: 2 two sets of Primes & 2 sets of Options
Tire Codes:
Prime — Left-side — D-5208; Right-side — D-5220;
Option — Left-side — D-5224; Right-side — D-5226
Tire Circumference:
Left-side — 2,249 mm (88.54 in.);
Right-side — 2,276 mm (89.61 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation:
Left Front — 12 psi; Left Rear — 12 psi;
Right Front — 26 psi; Right Rear — 24 psi
Storyline – Option tire gives Cup teams a Prime chance for strategy in All-Star race: At this week’s NASCAR Cup Series All-Star event at North Wilkesboro Speedway, Goodyear Racing is bringing both a “Prime” and an “Option” tire for teams to run. The Option tire has the same construction as the Prime tire, but will feature the same tread compound that Goodyear uses on its wet weather tire for Cup competition, just with a “slick” tread and no tread pattern. The Option tread compound will provide teams with more grip but wear quicker, thus leading to more lap-time fall-off and tire management becoming a bigger factor for drivers.
While Cup teams will have two sets of Option tires for all on-track sessions leading up to the main event (along with three sets of Prime tires), they will have an additional two sets of Options (along with two sets of Primes) for the 200-lap All-Star race itself.
“We tested at North Wilkesboro in March because of the repave since last year’s All-Star race, so we knew we’d have a new tire set-up for this year,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “During the test, we evaluated a set-up that utilized a right-side tire with the tread compound we use on our current wet weather tire. That set-up proved to be three-tenths-of-a-second faster over our control set-up. In conversations with NASCAR, bringing an ‘Option’ tire to the All-Star race became a possibility and we had this data point to work from.
With the adjustment to the wet weather compound on both the right- and left-side we expect the Option set-up to be maybe four- to five-tenths quicker than the Prime set-up, which is quite significant on a five-eighths-mile track. Now, with that extra grip and speed comes the fact that the Option tire will fall off more quickly, making tire management an important factor when those tires are on the car.
Teams will have two sets of Options for practice through the heat races, so they will have a good idea of what that looks like and be able to make a decision on when to best utilize their second set of Options during the All-Star race. All-in-all, we feel bringing the Option tire can enhance this event, and may provide some additional direction as we continue to work on the Cup short track package.”